Weekend getaway

Josh and I were fortunate to be able to go on a weekend getaway this past weekend. Grandma and Papa Kindler came and stayed with the boys. We stayed at a Bed and Breakfast on Friday night in Valley Falls. On Saturday we went to the K-State football game (too bad the Cats lost) and stayed in Manhattan that night. Aggieville sure has changed since I lived in Manhattan - of course, that was almost 9 years ago.

Here are a few pics that we took while we were away. Hope everyone is having a great week. It's hard to believe that November is going to be here in only four more days!!!

Masen's first field trip and Parent/Teacher conferences and painting pumpkins at home....

Masen went on his first field trip as a "Kindergartener" yesterday. I was lucky enough to get to go too! We went to Deanna Rose and the pumpkin patch. It was a lot of fun, but started raining on us at the end. It's so fun to see Masen having a good time with his friends at school.

Josh and I attended our first parent/teacher conferences this afternoon. I still can't believe that my "baby" is so big! His teacher had nothing but good reports. He's actually very advanced for his age - of course, we already new this - and I'm not being bias :). It was really neat to hear that he is also very caring and kind to his friends. She told us that most of the time, Masen finishes his assignments before everyone else and instead of just sitting at his desk, he has been helping other students on their work. Makes me feel like a really proud parent! Now if he would just start acting this way to his brother at home....

Anways, it's been a great week, thus far, for the Kindler household!

Here are a few pics of us painting pumpkins this weekend....Enjoy!

Leaving a 2 year old unattended with markers...

So, last night as I was getting ready to give the boys baths - I found this....

This last one is my favorite - does that look like a remorseful boy, or what!?!

Dawson apparently was given markers (by his big brother, of course). He seriously, was only in his room for about 10 seconds and this is what happened! I couldn't help but laugh at what I saw! He told me that he had "tattoos" on his arms. This just goes to show you the destruction that can be done when leaving a 2 year old unattended for ANY amount of time! At least he didn't write on the carpet or walls - I may not have laughed as much had he done that. After scrubing and scrubing in the bathtub, the marker still didn't all come off, so I guess he'll be able to wear his "tattoos" a little longer :).

Hope everyone has a great week and this brightens your day a little!

A few pics from this week.

Dawson's clearly loving the whole "potty training" thing. I'll interpret for you, "I don't care what she gives me, I'm NOT GOING POOP ON THE POTTY and she can't make me!"
A little "preview" of the Halloween costumes. They had to show NiNi, of course.

What Goes on when Mommy is away...

I was going through our pictures today and ran across some videos that Josh took when he was home with the boys after Dawson was born. Josh was a teacher for several years, so he was able to stay home in the summers - I still had to work, unfortunately. Anyways, I hope you get a good laugh out of them as I did. It's amazing what goes on when Mommy is away....

This first one is a video of Masen "golfing" in our kitchen...hopefully Josh tried to help him improve his golf swing - you'll see what I mean when you watch this!

This next one is a video of Dawson sitting on Josh's lap - I hope he finally fed the poor child! It was probably a good thing that I didn't find these videos until almost 3 years later :).

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Potty training frustrations

Potty training with Dawson is not going as hoped at our household! It seems as though we have one very stubborn son, who could care less if his brand new dinasaur "big boy" pants get ruined. Yes, I said ruined b/c - I don't enjoy the whole "cleaning poop out of underwear thing." The boy has been peeing on the potty for as long as I can remember- probably a good 4-5 months now, so why can't he just poop on the potty too?!? I guess it's more frustrating for me this time b/c Masen was so easy to potty training. He had it down at only 2 years and 7 months old and I don't remember him having any accidents. Maybe I'm expecting too much, but I sure am sick of spending a fortune on diapers!!! And yes, we've tried everything to make it "worth it" to him - candy, quarters, everything! Hopefully he'll at least have it down before he goes to Kindergarten :).

Thumb sucking and humor from Masen....

Just wanted to let everyone know how proud I am of Masen! He is REALLY trying hard to stop sucking his thumb- yes, he's 5, and in Kindergarten, and he still sucks his thumb. For those of you who have kiddos who use binks...BE GLAD! At least you can take away (or throw away) binks.

We have started a new "incentive" approach. Everyday Masen starts out with a jar of marbles (usually 6 - this number will decrease every day). He loses one every time we catch him sucking his thumb. And at the end of the day if he has any marbles left in his jar, he earns $0.50. So far this is working, hopefully it's not too early to be saying this (it is only day #2). He is trying to save up to buy a new Transformer.

Of course, we are also using the positive reinforcement and praise techniques too. Masen really thrives off of praise! In fact last week as I was driving him to his Awana club, I was boosting his Ego and telling him how proud we are of him - he's doing so well in school, in Awana, and at trying really hard to stop sucking his thumb. He then shrugged his shoulders and replied, "Well, you should be Mommy. I'm proud of myself, so you sure should be proud of me."

This is our Masen! The corky, pleasing (yet still stubborn) Masen. How proud we are of him and Dawson! Everday I remind myself how blessed I am to have my two sons (and husband) and I can't wait to see what else life has in store for us.

Trip to Grandma and PaPa's farm

We went to Josh's parents house in Esbon, KS over Labor Day weekend. We love to go there - it's so quiet and relaxing. In fact we barely get out of our PJ's! The kiddos kept busy - swimming in the hot tub, riding PaPa's "train," feeding the donkeys, feeding the dog, Jake, playing baseball, eating lots and lots of ice cream and popsicles. What fun we had! Here's a few pics from the trip. Kristal, John, Owen, Zach and Taylor all were there too.

A Day in the Life of a Stay-at-Home Mom!

Thought I'd share a little insight to what a day is like for me - taking care of two (very active) boys, not to mention my niece who is eighteen months old too.

Woke up at 6:45 (the boys were up by 6:15, of course with Daddy before he left for work). Got Masen and Dawson dressed, fed them breakfast - second breakfast this morning as the cheerios that Daddy had given them were "too soggy" by then. Got dressed myself. Brushed the boy's teeth and hair (Masen's takes a lot of gel these days :). Put two car seats in the car, which isn't any easy task if you didn't know this....Out the door by 8:10 to take Masen to school. Dropped off snacks for Masen's Kindergarten class. Dawson and I watered the plants when we got home.

My niece Taylor arrived at 8:45. Changed two diapers then headed-off to Jazzercise for an hour of stress relief and exercise! Went back home and changed another diaper, took Dawson to the bathroom - he's somewhat potty trained these days. Got snacks ready. Played outside for a while on the "Whee" as Taylor calls it - AKA, swing. Refereed between Dawson and Taylor taking each other's snack - this is a daily thing anym0re. Loaded Dawson and Taylor in the car to pick Masen up by 11:20. Made and fed three kids lunch. At the same time - cleaned the microwave out, unloaded the dishwasher, and managed to make myself something to eat as well. Cleaned-up the kitchen after lunchtime, which included wiping down the table and chairs - mac-n-cheese today, which is MESSY, sweeping the kitchen floor, and washing a few dishes.

Put all three kiddos down for a nap around 1:00. Read books first, of course. Changed diapers again too - I'm still hoping that Dawson's done with diapers soon! And now I finally have an hour or so of peace and quiet time!

Oh, and in between all of this I also managed to wash three loads of laundry and even fold and put away one of them too!

Whew! Half-way done with today, then start the whole routine over again tomorrow. I love my life and am so blessed to get to spend everyday with my children! Even if it means cleaning-up constantly and mediating between kids. It's worth all of that and more!

Masen's first day of Kindergarten!!!

Well, it's officially here....Masen's first day of Kindergarten! We managed to get there without too many tears (Mommy's tears that is, not Masen's). Although the walk out of the school, once we dropped him off, was not as successful. Masen was so excited to go this morning - he was even up at 3 AM - a little too early :). He had a great day! He went to the computer lab, had storytime and painted a picture for Mommy and Daddy too. We know that he is going to have so much fun this year! We are so proud of him and Dawson and are truly blessed to be their parents!

Here are some pics from Masen's first day - he kept saying, "No more pictures, Mommy!" I guess he really is "growing-up."

Summer comes to an end

Well, summer is finally over (or at least it will be in about 6 more sleeps for us). Josh already went back to work last week - his month off seemed to fly by this summer. We enjoyed our time together. We had a great time at the Lake! Sixteen of us went in all...Grandma and PaPa, Aunts, Uncles and cousins too. We had a fun time swimming, riding wave runners, renting boats and tubing, riding go carts, and the women went shopping!!! We love spending time with our family and just wish that we could all get together more often.

Masen starts Kindergarten next Wednesday. He's very ready, I'm sure I'll cry on the first day. But, I think its time for him and Dawson to get a little break from each other :). Masen will also be starting Awana in September. We're looking into enrolling Dawson in Gymnastics as he loves to do somersaults! I'm sure this year will fly by as life does anymore. We look forward to the new adventures that are in store for us.

Lake of the Ozarks 2008

The four of us....

Summer

We've had a great summer so far! Josh has the month of July off, so we've done lots of fun things as a family. We're getting ready to leave for the Ozarks with Josh's family for a week...the kids are counting down sleeps - only 4 more to go before we leave. Last week we did some fun things...we went swimming, to the movies and bowling. Dawson's first time to see a movie in the theatres and bowl.

Masen just finished his first year of T-ball (we'll add some pics soon). He had a lot of fun! Although, we think he had more fun playing in the dirt and talking to the "other team" than he did actually playing the game. He especially loved to talk to the other players when he was fielding and they were on the bases. Who knows, maybe it was strategy.

Dawson is talking up a storm and keeping us VERY BUSY! We're attempting the potty training thing and so far he's doing pretty well. He loves to do everything that his big brother does - even if his big brother doesn't want him too.

We're so proud of our boys and are enjoying every moment with them! We can't wait to see what the future holds for them - and us.

Here we go....

So, we decided to take a stab at this whole blogging thing...we'll see how far we get. Life is good for us. We are blessed to have two amazing (yet very onry) boys! Life is definitely busy and goes by way too fast. Josh just wrapped up his first year as an Assistant Principal at Mill Creek Middle School in DeSoto. It was a good year, but he's glad to have a break. Jen kept very busy this year as she became an official "stay at home mom" in July of last year. She's enjoying her time with the boys, as she didn't have much of it when she was working. We're looking forward to a great summer! We'll be going to the Ozarks with Josh's family for a week and will also be going to the pool quite a bit in July. We're looking forward to updating everyone and posting new pics as we take on different adventures.